1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Bluetooth communications, and more particularly, to a Bluetooth appliance having a programmable non-memory storage device and a telecommunication method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
To realize various functions needed for device communications, there have appeared a number of appliances that store an identification (ID) or ID address for device recognition. These appliances, such as a portable audio device (e.g., an MP3 player) having an ID used in device authorization to receive contents, a portable video device (e.g., a digital camera), and the like, may include a built-in Bluetooth system having an ID used in inter-device recognition and information exchange. Also, since a caller address and a destination address are typically transmitted in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) communications or mobile communications, a transmitting/receiving device has an ID.
Bluetooth was initially developed by the Swedish company Ericsson, with the aim of replacing wired cables for data communications with wireless connections. The connections can be between such devices as a portable phone, a personal computer (PC), a digital still camera, a printer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a game console, and the like. A baseband in a Bluetooth module is connected to a radio frequency (RF) module and manages connections between Bluetooth devices at the lowest communication layer. Bluetooth uses a frequency band of 2.4 GHz with a frequency range of 79 MHz. The frequency band is divided into 79 channels, each 1 MHz wide. With some exceptions, Bluetooth uses 79 channels (in some countries, 23 channels are used). The baseband changes channels 1600 times per second. Arithmetically, each channel is selected about 20 times per second.
Bluetooth communications have a hop sequence that can be recognized between Bluetooth devices. This hop sequence is determined by ID addresses of the Bluetooth devices. These ID addresses are similar to media access control (MAC) addresses of network interface cards (NIC: also referred to as LAN cards). Thus, Bluetooth devices can identify one Bluetooth device from among a number of Bluetooth devices using the ID addresses. An example of an identification technique is frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS). An application designer can assign an ID address to a Bluetooth device. In most cases, an ID address is assigned to non-volatile memory (hereinafter, referred to as “NVM”) of a NVM built-in system in the form of program. If there is no NVM but memory is embedded in a host, an ID address of a Bluetooth device is stored using the embedded memory or the host's ID address stored in the embedded memory is used for device recognition. However, in a case of a small-size, low-price, low-current device, the ID address is stored in read only memory (ROM). The ROM stores information such as addresses through a semiconductor process progressing according to a design on a mask. In a Bluetooth device implementing ROM an application designer cannot freely assign an ID address to the Bluetooth device. That is, in a system whose host does not include NVM or another memory, an ID address for Bluetooth cannot be programmed and stored.
Portable devices, such as a portable audio device (e.g., an MP3 player) or a portable video device (e.g., a digital still camera), can download audio files or moving picture files via a computer from a web server that provides content through the Internet. The web server providing content manages content files, interprets authentication information transmitted from a computer, and identifies user IDs, appliance ID addresses, and the like. If authentication is successful, the web server provides content via the computer to the appliances. However, when an application designer assigns ID addresses to appliances, there appears a problem similar to a case where an ID is assigned to a Bluetooth device.
Since an ID address of a transmitting/receiving device is used to transmit information in IEEE communications or mobile communications, the ID address of the transmitting/receiving device in the appliance needs to be programmed and stored. However, in a system whose host does not include NVM or another memory, an ID address for the transmitting/receiving device cannot be programmed and stored.